The Triumphant Life of Theodore Roosevelt edited by J. Martin Miller

BIOGRAPHY OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 27
A vacancy occurred on the bench of the U. S. Supreme
Court by the resignation of Associate Justice Horace Gray,
and on August 11, 1902, President Roosevelt appointed Oliver
Wendell Holmes of Massachusetts, associate justice, and on
the resignation of Associate justice George Shiras, Jr., in 1903,
he appointed Judge William R. Day of the U. S. Circuit
Court, associate justice.
His first message to Congress followed the line of policy
foreshadowed in McKinley's last speech at Buffalo, and as
President he made extended journeys through the various
States, the welcome extended to him being alike generous and
universal in New England and in the Southern States. It is
safe to say that no president who had reached the office
through the vice-presidency began his administration under
better auspices or with less of partisan opposition and criti-
cism. His recommendations were acknowledged to be wise
and conservative, and while Congress did not adopt them all,
it gave to each careful consideration. His action in reference
to the coal strike of 1902 restored order and secured a return
of the miners to their work, and at the same time made the
workingmen feel that their cause had not suffered from his
counsel. In the complications arising from the Venezuela
difficulties in 1902-03, he maintained the Monroe Doctrine in
all negotiations with the European powers interested, and
was honored by the government of Venezuela in being named
as an acceptable arbitrator, which duty he gracefully avoided
by proposing The Hague tribunal as the proper means for
arriving at a peaceful solution.
He enjoyed high social, literary and academic distinction
before he became President, having been elected a member of
the Columbia Historical Society, to which he contributed